Using Amazon EC2 with Windows Server is similar to using Amazon EC2 with any other operating system. Amazon EC2 running Windows Server provides seamless integration with existing Amazon EC2 features like Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), Amazon CloudWatch, Elastic Load Balancing, and Elastic IPs. Windows instances are available in multiple Availability Zones in all Regions.

Amazon EC2 makes it easy to start and manage your Windows-based instances. Amazon EC2 provides you with several pre-configured AMIs that allow you to start running instances in minutes. To find the most up-to-date listing of these images and their contents, please visit the Windows AMI page or the AMI catalog.

Once you choose your AMI, you can use the AWS Management Console to configure, launch, terminate, and even bundle your Amazon EC2 for Windows instances.Moreover, you can employ a graphical interface to utilize all of the features of Amazon EC2, including Amazon EBS, Amazon CloudWatch, Elastic Load Balancing, Auto Scaling, and Elastic IPs. To learn more about the AWS Management Console, please visit the AWS Management Console page. A set of command line tools (API Tools) are also available for those interested in implementing management scripts.

AWS Directory Service provides you with an easy way to seamlessly join your Amazon EC2 for Windows instances to a domain. You can join an instance to an existing, on-premises Active Directory, using AD Connector, or a stand-alone, Simple AD directory running in the AWS Cloud. Using the AWS Management Console or the EC2 API, you can choose which domain a new instance will join when it launches. For existing instances, you can use the EC2 API to seamlessly join them to a domain. To learn more, please see our documentation.

For more advanced topics about managing Windows-based instances, including tutorials, technical articles, and other resources available to help you manage your Windows-based instances, please visit the Windows and .Net Developer Center.

You can manage your Amazon EC2 resources using our web service APIs. We provide the AWS SDK for .NET that enables you to call AWS infrastructure services (e.g., Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Amazon CloudWatch, Amazon SQS, and more) programmatically, so that you can build and deploy your applications within .NET.

AWS also provides a set of publicly available AMIs that are pre-bundled with SQL Server Express, Internet Information Services (IIS) and ASP.NET to help you get started quickly. These AMIs may be used with Amazon EC2 running Windows Server at no additional cost. Many customers use one or more of these AMIs for their Web 2.0 and ASP.NET applications.

Amazon EC2 running Windows Server with SQL Server offers you the flexibility to run a database server for as much or as little time as you need. We offer Amazon EC2 with several versions of Microsoft SQL Server.

SQL Server Web Edition 2008 R2, 2012 and 2014: A mid-level database product that is restricted to Web facing applications, and available at a low cost over the base Windows Server instance price on EC2. This product offers unlimited database size, easy manageability, and is suitable for small to large-scale Web applications.

SQL Server Standard Edition 2005, 2008, 2008 R2, 2012 and 2014: A higher-end database product that allows unrestricted use for building enterprise-scale Windows-based applications, and massively scalable websites. SQL Server Standard includes support for Mirroring, and is suitable for applications with High Availability needs.

All versions of SQL Server integrate with Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS), enabling you to take advantage of the persistence, performance, and reliability of Amazon EBS for all your databases. Click here to learn more about all the database options with AWS. To find details on available AMIs please visit the Windows AMI page or the AMI Catalog.

To learn more information about Microsoft SharePoint, including how to download the Microsoft SharePoint on AWS Reference Architecture White Paper, which discusses general concepts, as well as detailed technical guidance on how to configure, deploy, and run a SharePoint Server farm on AWS, please visit http://aws.amazon.com/windows/sharepoint/.

On-Demand Instances let you pay for compute capacity by the hour with no long-term commitments or upfront payments. You can increase or decrease your compute capacity depending on the demands of your application and only pay the specified hourly rate for the instances you use. Amazon EC2 always strives to have enough On-Demand capacity available to meet your needs, but during periods of very high demand, it is possible that you might not be able to launch specific On-Demand instance types in specific Availability Zones for short periods of time.

SQL Server Express Edition, Microsoft IIS and ASP.NET can be used on any Amazon EC2 instance running Windows Server for no additional cost.

Reserved Instances provide you with a capacity reservation, so you can have confidence that you will be able to launch the instances you have reserved when you need them. There are three RI payment options (No Upfront, Partial Upfront, All Upfront) that enable you to balance the amount you pay upfront with your effective hourly price.

Reserved Instances can be purchased for 1 or 3 year terms, and the one-time fee per instance is non-refundable. Reserved Instances are billed for every hour during the entire Reserved Instance term (which means you’re charged the hourly fee regardless of whether any usage has occurred during an hour). Reserved Instances are currently available for Amazon EC2 running Linux/UNIX, SUSE Linux, Microsoft Windows Server, and Microsoft SQL Server. Click here to learn more about Reserved Instances.

If Microsoft chooses to increase the license fees that it charges for Windows or SQL Server, we may correspondingly increase the per-hour usage rate for previously purchased Reserved Instances with Windows or Windows and SQL Server. The initial one-time payment for a Reserved Instance will be unaffected in this situation. Any such changes would be made between Dec 1 – Jan 31, with at least 30 days’ notice. If the per-hour usage price does increase, you may continue to use your Reserved Instance with Windows or Windows and SQL Server with the new per-hour usage price, convert your Reserved Instance to a Reserved Instance with Linux, or request a pro rata refund of the upfront fee you paid for the Reserved Instance with Windows.

As of December 2nd, 2014, your volume discount is calculated based on the total list value of a Reserved Instance, which includes both the upfront and recurring hourly payments of your Reserved Instances. Customers’ existing volume discount position relative to the tiers will not be affected by this adjustment.

If you purchase a large amount of Reserved Instances in an AWS region, you will automatically receive discounts on your upfront fees and hourly fees for future purchases of Reserved Instances in that AWS region. Reserved Instance Marketplace purchases do not qualify for the volume discount but the prorated remaining list value for these purchases will count towards your volume discount status. Reserved Instance Tiers are determined based on the List Value (non-discounted total price) for the active Reserved Instances you have per AWS region.

AWS GovCloud is an AWS Region designed to allow U.S. government agencies and contractors to move more sensitive workloads into the cloud by addressing their specific regulatory and compliance requirements. For pricing and more information on the new AWS GovCloud Region, please visit the AWS GovCloud Pricing Page.